About the EENA

EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, was set up in 1999 as a non-profit association registered in Belgium to serve as a neutral discussion platform for emergency services, industry and informed citizens with the aim of getting efficient, interoperable and harmonised emergency telecommunications in accordance with citizens' requirements. EENA has been advocating to authorities the issues related to the 112 as there are more and more EU citizens travelling for business or leisure. EENA is also promoting the establishment of a general, pan-European, multilingual, simplified and efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.

News

THE COST of using mobile phones abroad will be significantly cut under regulations approved by the European Parliament yesterday...More transparency for customers is also being introduced by legislation as operators will be obliged to send customers a text when roaming with the prices and the EU 112 emergency number.

Sofia, Bulgaria -  The Ministry of Health will officially announce the end of first stage of project "Setting up communication structure for emergency number 112" at 9.30 in the National Medical Coordination Center, the press service of the health ministry informed. The Minister of Health - Evgeny Zhelev will attend the event.

The German BWMI has issued emergency call regulation has been implemented as a law on 18 March'09. The regulation carries the obligation for mobile operators to allow calling 112 or 110 from their handsets. Additionally, the citizens of the country can only make calls to emergency numbers only when they have a mobile handset and active SIM card instead to prevent abuse of calling emergency number for fun.

Plans to make it easier for people to call the emergency services on mobile phones wherever they are in the UK have been unveiled.

Communications watchdog Ofcom has given details of proposals to develop a service where emergency calls automatically "roam" on to an available network if there is no coverage from a customer's own mobile service.

Serbia: First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic yesterday announced that the Interior Ministry's emergency service is soon to be formed.

You're overseas. It's late. You're driving alone when disaster strikes. You've crashed your car and you need help. Who do you call?  You might not know the number for the local emergency services, or that it's 999 in Britain; 15, 17 and 18 in France; or 10111 and 10177 in South Africa. But do you know that there is one internationally-recognized number that will connect you to the emergency services across Europe and even further beyond?

A round table discussion will be held on Friday about the emergency phone number 112. It will focus on society's knowledge about the use of the service, as well as the role of the civil society. The event will start at 9.00 in Grant Hotel Sofia. The forum is organized with the cooperation of MEP Dushana Zdravkova and is supported by the European Association for the emergency phone number 112.

Switzerland Federal Council proposed to step by step highlight the 112 as the single emergency number in Switzerland and to integrate to this number the police, fire and ambulance services.

EENA is delighted to announce the launch of the 112 Foundation. The 112 Foundation was created to save lives by promoting the knowledge and appropriate use of the European emergency number 112. The 112 Foundation was proposed and established by EENA - the European Emergency Number Association - in cooperation with its Advisory Board.  Its main objective is to offer free campaign materials to all citizens and organisations willing to inform and educate on the 112.

Since December 2008, EU citizens can contact emergency services from anywhere in the European Union by dialing 112, the EU-wide emergency number, free of charge from both fixed and mobile phones. But, only one in four Europeans knows that this life-saving number exists in other Member States and almost three in ten 112 callers in other countries have encountered language problems. Today the Commission, along with the European Parliament and the Council, declared February 11 "European 112 Day" to spread the word about 112 and push national authorities to make the EU's single emergency number more multilingual.

112 Awards Ceremony held on 10th February in Palais d'Egmont, Brussels.

Bulgaria - The European Commission cancelled the infringement procedure for implementation of a sanction against Bulgaria, for the inability to comply with the agreement for the setting up of the emergency telephone system 112.